Best Performance

Match Record & Goals Tally

2018 Qualifying Campaign

Made the World Cup by…

Switzerland finished second in UEFA Qualifying Group B and won the playoff against Northern Ireland to qualify for Russia.

Qualifying Record & Goals Tally

Played: 12, Won: 10, Drawn: 1, Lost: 1

Scored: 24, Conceded: 7

Story to Watch

Luck is a funny thing in football and after a rotten spell missing out on the Euro quarter finals by a goal, Switzerland were drawn with Portugal for qualification.

Forced to go through the playoffs their luck turned with a fortunate handball decision helping get them past Northern Ireland and now, with arguably a better squad than two years ago, can they make their own luck this time?

MIDFIELDERS

FORWARDS

Josip Drmic, Breel Embolo, Mario Gavranovic, Haris Seferovic

Strengths

Switzerland have an abundance of midfield talent and that group will need to perform in all three group games.

Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka and Udinese’s Valon Behrami will need to screen the defenders effectively and will have to track the likes of Paulinho when they face Brazil, a big task that Vladmir Petkovic will be hoping they are up for.

Weakness

Generally speaking your striker should be your best attacking option however the options do not exactly inspire confidence.

Instead they may very well have to rely on the likes of Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka producing a couple of long range goals to have any sort of real attacking threat.

Notable Absentees

West Ham’s Edimilson Fernandes was left out of the squad and will feel the hardest done by out of all the omissions.

Key Player

Xherdan Shaqiri

Despite his club suffering a miserable season as they were relegated from the Premier League, Shaqiri could still have been happy with how he performed.

As Switzerland’s best attacking weapon, he will need to be on the ball a lot to ensure that they are making the most of their attacking opportunities.

Final Prediction

Switzerland’s first priority will be to survive Brazil without wrecking their goal difference before attempting to summon the winning spirit of their country’s greatest sportsman, Roger Federer against Serbia and Costa Rica.

With everyone but Brazil offering limited attacking options finding an extra goal or two could be critical but it is hard to see Switzerland being able to generate enough chances without relying on a couple of screamers and a group stage exit seems likely.